June 28 Tokyo Workshop

RKC Taikei Matsushita and I gave a workshop in Tokyo's Shinjuku district on June 28. Content, over 3.5 hours, covered mobility/flexibility drills, the swing, Turkish get-up, press/push-press/jerk, and the snatch. Jump stretch bands were used for a variety of stretches, mobility and activation drills, and complementary exercises. Two mini-workouts included a timed jerk (or push-press) set and and short snatch pace ladder workout for those competent w. their snatches.



There were 9 students in attendance and kettlebell experience ranged from a month to several years. They came from all over Japan, including one from Okinawa. A significant investment of time and money for many, and I was honored to teach them. To be honest, I was a little nervous teaching another person's students, many of whom had attended workshops with Senior RKC David Whitley, and Ken Black and John Wild Buckley - I was following in the (very large) footsteps of some very accomplished kettlebell teachers. However, many of the students improved their jerks significantly and Taikei was pleased that I introduced them to a variety of new mobility/flexibility drills and training methods. The new students were probably a bit overwhelmed at times, but their skills improved greatly in the short time alloted and they will need time and practice to digest the information. I look forward to hearing about their progress. Overall, I was very pleased with the students and my presentation of the materials. It was my first chance to teach kettlebells in Japanese and I was lucky to have Taikei there to help me out when I couldn't say "IT band", or "hip flexors" in Japanese. I know I was slaughtering the language at points - the highlight being when I said (in Japanese) "Put power in your butt!". I probably said that 10 times and didn't think about it until later. Hopefully Taikei won't put that on YouTube...

It was very nice to see Taikei Matsushita again - two years ago I traveled to Tokyo to visit him prior to my RKC certification. He gave me several pointers that improved the quality of my RKC experience greatly. Together, in addition to doing a lot of farmers walks transporting kettlebells to and from the workshop and working with an RKC candidate, we spent our time talking shop and eating good food. Good food and good company - can't beat that!